Blends With Savanna Grasses

Look at this two pretty girls. They don't get much more pretty than that, do they? Ava (on the left) do anything to get into a bathing suit. Any excuse will do, even in cold weather. And just in case you're wondering... The girls really love dress up and high heels. So, while they're sometimes a pill to get out the door to church on a sunny Sunday morning, they usually don't mind putting on a nice dress and shoes. Rachel did a nice little SmileBox photo album on the dress-up morning from the photo above on the right here. And yes, Katie (on the right) has a band-aid on her nose.


This photo (above) is from back in the summer time, but worth posting today in the fall. The weather was gorgeous and the lil girls (Ava and Katie, left and center, respectively) were showing me their newest moves from their gymnastics class, mostly cartwheels across the soft grass of our front yard. Anna (far right), and the neighbor's dog Marley, decide watch the exhibition.


Katie has also been on a hair braiding kick. She's been learning lots of new braids and playing with several new hairstyles. She did the braids above by herself without a mirror. That's pretty cool! It makes me smile when I see Katie and Ava interacting. Ava loves her big sisser so much and enjoys playing with her every chance she gets.

I honestly don't know where Rachel got the patience to help her put in those '50's glam-style soft curls (below), but she looks awesome. :^) Rachel also put together a really cute SmileBox photo album of Katie here.



Kaylee and Ava also spent the summer playing Upwards Soccer. I'm really proud of how much progress they've made and how much better they're getting. Here's an action photo of Ava just prior to her kickin' the snot outta d'soccer ball:



Soccer is just one indication that fall is finally here. In the old days, the start of school also meant the start of fall. But now that school starts just a couple days in to August, you have to look for other indicators. For us, it's been Savannah's football games at night (she plays clarinet in the school band) and Kaylee & Ava's soccer games on Saturday morning. I've really enjoyed taking the family to both. Not ironically, I've gotten my worst sunburns of the year at the Saturday morning soccer games. But it's all good! Rachel put together a great photo album here, also including some memorable trips to the Cedar Creek beach on Old Hickory Lake and Ava's ear piercing event.

Fall is also the time when I have to take a LOT of business trips. Overall, it's a big personal sacrifice in an otherwise awesome job. I'll post about those trips soon.

Cheers,

-Kev

Labels: Kids

I suspect that rising pressure at both work and at home can be relieved by drilling massive holes in my skull. Where's my auger?

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I want to build an FAQ. What's your recommendation? Just a web page? Or is there some good specialized software?

I had a lot of travel to contend with over the past couple weeks. While travel in and of itself isn't a horrible thing, long trips are very unpleasant. I miss the family to an almost debilitating degree.

A lot of my friends and acquaintances say "Yeah, but you're traveling to really cool places in Europe and all over the world". True indeed. But I'd be equally lonely if I had to drive 2 hours to Chattanooga or fly 9 hours to London. It's loneliness either way, only the accents change.

One of my friends asked why I'd grown out my beard. The picture at left is actually only 1/2 of the beard. I've since grown out a fuller beard.

I'd initially thought that I'd grown out my beard out of either laziness (so I didn't have to shave) or curiosity (to see what it'd look like). But I knew this wasn't completely honest.

But upon deeper reflection, I've grown my beard out to put distance between the Kevin of pre-1994 who was clean shaven, the Kevin of 1994-2005 who wore a goatee and the Kevin of today. Some women change their hair color after a major life transition. She grows up and heads off to college. When she comes home, everyone is surprised to see she's a blond, or a redhead, or whatever.

I can't say that I'll keep it forever. I really don't know. But I'm certain that, after a series of major transitions, the beard is part of my 21st century identity.

Labels: Experiences

Mortified that technical difficulties crashed my webcast this morning. =^(

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Heading down Baywater Rd to the Royal Lancaster for some of London's best Thai food. =^)